RoboCup 2004 was recently held in Portugal. This is a soccer tournament for robots, where 346 teams from 37 countries competed for the prize. The skills required in soccer are being used as a benchmark for state-of-the-art robotics.



The latest generation of robots are able to independently recognise the ball, go towards it and kick it, as well as shield the ball from opponents. Although the speed and dexterity of the robots may leave much to be desired in relation to human soccer, technology is developing fast:-

"By 2050, our aim is to beat the winners of football’s World Cup and we are very confident that we will be able to do that," said Shu Ishiguro, who heads Robot Laboratory in Osaka. "When we have accomplished that, we will have a society in which humans and artificial intelligence are completely in harmony."

Surely this is missing the point. Robo-players are one thing, but killer app will be robo-refs. I can imagine the abuse from the terraces ("Who's the tin can in the black","Is one of your scanners defective Ref?" etc. etc.).